Terry Venables did authorise a £50,000 payment to Nottingham Forest when he signed Teddy Sheringham for Tottenham and the England striker lied, according to the Premier League's `bung' inquiry.

But Venables was only acting in what he believed was the best interests of Tottenham at the time, in what the inquiry called a "cult of dishonesty" in English football's transfer market.

And while the FA will decide on what action to take in the next few days, there is no evidence whatsoever that Brian Clough received any part of the illegal payment, even if his assistant Ronnie Fenton did receive money.

Those were the main findings of the Premier League investigation into the `bung' affair, which reported yesterday after three-and-a-half years.

The investigation team of Robert Reid QC, former Premier League chief executive Rick Parry and Steve Coppell studied more than 10,200 pages of evidence from 66 witnesses into some 30 deals.

Yet although there could be no arguing with the thoroughness of the £1 million-plus investigation, there was precious little in the findings that had not been widely trailed before.